{"id":221208,"date":"2026-03-26T09:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/221208\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T09:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:38:19","slug":"houston-rodeo-2026-draws-2-6-million-fans-and-record-setting-steer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/221208\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston rodeo 2026 draws 2.6 million fans and record-setting steer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which ran March 2-22, delivered a surge of economic activity to the region just as households contend with\u00a0high gasoline prices <\/a>and faltering stock markets.<\/p>\n

This year’s festivities, including the World\u2019s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest from Feb. 26-28, drew more than 2.6 million visitors,<\/a> according to data released by RodeoHouston Monday.\u00a0While that is\u00a0slighly less than last year’s total attendance<\/a>, of nearly 2.74 million, several records were set at NRG Park over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

Zinger, this year’s Grand Champion Junior Market Steer,\u00a0sold for $1.5 million at auction<\/a> Saturday, shattering the record of a $1 million steer sale that was set in 2022 and repeated in 2024. Champion barrows, broilers, goats and lambs also set records at auction, the rodeo said, with total junior auction sales topping $35 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the event\u2019s final night,\u00a0country star Cody Johnson drew 80,203 fans to NRG stadium for a full-length set that\u00a0set a new concert-only attendance\u00a0record for the venue<\/a>, edging the previous record, set by George Strait in 2019, by 95 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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CLOSING CONCERT: Cody Johnson closes Houston rodeo with Carrie Underwood, Car\u00edn Le\u00f3n & NRG Stadium attendance record<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Boleman, president and CEO of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, highlighted another record number in a wrap-up issued Monday. This year’s rodeo relied on more than 36,000 volunteers over the course of the year \u2014 the largest volunteer base in rodeo history \u2014 as well as donors, sponsors and employees. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are deeply grateful to our community, whose enthusiasm and support make this iconic event possible year after year,\u201d Boleman said.<\/p>\n

All of this activity translates into hundreds of millions of dollars for the Houston economy each year. In 2025, according to the nonprofit’s data, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo had\u00a0total operating revenues\u00a0of nearly $240 million<\/a> and operating expenses of about $194 million, including about $19.3 million in scholarships and educational grants.\u00a0This year’s financial highlights will\u00a0be available later this year, the rodeo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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RODEO RECORD: Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo\u2019s Grand Champion steer, Zinger, sells for a record $1.5 million<\/a><\/p>\n

As dramatic as these numbers are, they only capture a portion of the economic activity that the rodeo spurs in\u00a0Houston each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every few years, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo commissions a broader economic impact analysis<\/a>, which draws on-site interviews to get a more comprehensive picture of total spending from both locals and out-of-town visitors. In 2024, the analysis found, the rodeo generated total economic activity of $597 million.<\/p>\n

That puts the rodeo in the same echelon as events such as the Super Bowl or major political conventions, which cities including Houston regularly compete to host.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The rodeo is nearly a century old, tracing its roots to a 1931 lunch<\/a> at which seven businessmen decided to create an event called the Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their first expo,\u00a0in 1932, drew 2,000 visitors and lost $2,800<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which ran March 2-22, delivered a surge of economic activity to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-221208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}